Many pro-handshake MPs embers of Parliament have mooted a plan to lock out graft suspects from clearance to run for election.
The lawmakers are pushing for amendments to the Leadership and Integrity Act to bar anyone facing serious crimes or crimes related to graft from contesting any seat in 2022.
The argument against this has always been that suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and exhaust all possible appeals. That’s also in the law.
The plan was revealed in snippets of a letter to National Assembly Justin Muturi seen by the Star on Sunday.
In the fresh bid to tighten election qualifications, the lawmakers seek to amend the Leadership and Integrity Act, 2012 and the Elections Act, 2011.
They want the laws amended to suspended a state or public officer who has been formally charged with a corruption-related offence.
They also want officers facing “other serious crimes related to corruption” to step aside once charged.
“…and to bar persons who are facing corruption charges from being nominated as candidates for election positions,” the letter read.
The lawmakers want the speaker’s approval and facilitation to draft bill or bills to enforce the desired outcomes.
“We wish to request your approval and facilitation of your office to enable me come up with a bill or bills that meet the requirements of the Constitution, the Laws of Kenya and our Standing Orders,” the letter by one of the MPs leading the team said.
Should Muturi approve the request, the lawmakers want laws amended to close lacunae (gaps) in law that have barred anti-graft agencies from enforcing the integrity rules.
“We want to ensure that Chapter Six [on integrity] of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 is given proper effect,” another MP said.
Constitution Article 99 provides that a person is disqualified from being elected an MP if he or she could be subject to imprisonment for at least six months as at the date of registration as a candidate.
It also applies to a person found to have misused or abused a state office or public office or in any way violated Chapter Six of the Constitution.
However, the law contains a rider saying a person is not disqualified unless all possible appeals and reviews of a sentence or decision are exhausted.
The EACC and DPP have deplored these provisions as a stumbling block to their efforts to nail graft suspects.
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Governors, MPs, and other politicians facing criminal charges arising from suspected theft of public resources, fraud and murder could thus be cleared by the IEBC to run in 2022.
EACC Chief Executive Office Twalib Mbarak once said the commission can only raise the red flag but the final call is made by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
In a recent roundtable meeting with MPs at the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development, the anti-graft agency bosses blamed the law for frustrating their efforts.